Are You Normal?

At what point does fondness of a fictional character become unhealthy?

The title says it all. Personally I think it's unhealthy if it gets in the way of the affected individual going about their daily life, or if the person in question avoids people in real life solely because of the fictional person.

I have a couple of fictional crushes. Yes, I am aware of their fictional nature. One is a character from a drama series who is incredibly handsome. I find myself fantasizing about him from time to time, mostly when I'm alone. He has a Canon love interest but I don't like the pairing mainly because their relationship started when he was her teacher. Just my opinion though.

Another fictional crush is from a sitcom; if he was real he'd be 20+ years older than me but I still like him..he's hilarious. He is canonically married and has 3 kids, and I like him and his wife together, they have good chemistry.

I sometimes think up names and backstories for unknown people who appear in my dreams and even draw them. I am aware they don't exist in real life too.

I'm open to having a relationship with a real life man or woman (I'm a bisexual female). The biggest thing holding me back from pursuing anything, however, is a bad experience with the last guy I was seeing over a year ago and fear of it happening again. My fantasies have nothing to do with my actual love life. I do have friends, spend time with family, and engage in a few hobbies here and there.

I have a friend who loves a certain video game character, and she takes it a little further, but I wouldn't call it obsession. She draws them together, wrote a fanfiction about their wedding in detail, and even bought gold wedding rings. She seems really happy and I think her art is cute. I only know her through social media so I don't know everything, but she seems to have no problem going about her daily life, and she knows he is fictional. I know a couple others who do similar things.

Anyway, I'm just curious to hear the opinions of others. What do y'all think?

Pretend and fantasy can be fun, but it's not good to fixate on it to the point where you are imagining your wedding, or buying a wedding band for a fictional character. These are unhealthy delusions that prevent meaningful connections with real people. If it is a real person who plays a character, that's one step below stalking. I find myself identifying with fictional characters, and even admiring them or finding them attractive, but I dont feel it's good to feel as though you're in some imaginary "relationship" with a fictional person. The whole "waifu" phenomenon over the internet is a testament to how unhealthy this kind of behaviour can become.

I've always had somewhat of a complex inner life, mostly as a coping mechanism for depression/mental illness. Also it's fun lol. I keep my feelings in check.

People can do what makes them happy, but I'm not disagreeing that obsession (in a literal sense) is unhealthy. It's worse when it's an actual person though, stalking is creepy and often times becomes dangerous.

As for my friend buying the rings, I will admit it's not exactly a common thing, but she can do what she wants with her own money. She apparently has spent a lot of time thinking of headcanons for her and her fav character, but any creativity is good creativity. I know someone else who writes self insert fanfic with her faves and has said many times she wishes one especially was real, but she actually is engaged in real life. Sometimes I feel the same way even though I know they never will exist. I haven't wrote fanfic but I'm really easily distracted and don't have a lot of free time these days. But anyway...I somewhat agree with you.